Re: 12/16/00 - NH Register: Cop busted in murder probe
Cop busted in murder probe
Christa Lee Rock, Register Staff December 16, 2000
[picture]
Sullivan
NEW HAVEN — Police Capt. Brian Sullivan turned himself in to state police early Friday morning after the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office secured an arrest warrant charging him with hindering an investigation and tampering with evidence in connection with the 1996 murder of Philip Cusick.
Sullivan’s arrest came at almost the same hour that New Haven’s pension board approved his retirement on a $60,599 annual pension after 24 years on the force.
As a result of his retirement, which is effective Monday, the city will drop ethics charges against him.
Sullivan was expected to be fired at a hearing set for Dec. 27.
Both charges against Sullivan are Class D felonies and center on his alleged failure to hand over details on a possible suspect in the death of Cusick, who was shot in New Haven before his body was left across from his mother’s North Haven home.
The former chief of the Investigative Services Unit, Sullivan faces maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and $10,000 if convicted on both charges.
The decorated police captain appeared at 8 a.m. at the state police barracks in Bethany, where he stood calmly and was booked.
"He was processed, he was printed and he was photographed," attorney Hugh Keefe said Friday.
State police released Sullivan, 46, on a promise to appear in court Dec. 22. Keefe said his client would plead innocent on both charges. "Unless I’m terribly wrong, he will ultimately be acquitted and vindicated by a jury of these charges," Keefe said.
For Sullivan, the early morning arrest marks the close of a seven-month grand jury investigation, which concluded Monday with a recommendation that Sullivan be charged. The grand juror, New Britain Justice Carmen Elisa Espinosa, could not identify a motive for Sullivan’s alleged actions.
Sullivan’s arrest hinges on allegations that in 1998 he shut down the Cusick investigation "per order of the chief" shortly after his subordinates in February of that year said they had witnesses who identified a suspect in the homicide. Police Chief Melvin Wearing and former Police Chief Nicholas Pastore testified they did not give such an order.
Acting on Sullivan’s orders, Sgt. Edward Kendall, 46, then removed the statement of the witness from the police property room and deposited it, along with a tape of the interview, in his unlocked desk drawer, the warrant said.
Not until January of this year did North Haven police know the statement existed — despite that Sullivan had scheduled several meetings with investigators to discuss the Cusick case, according to the warrant.
The warrant also hints at early attempts by Sullivan to impede the investigation within days of Cusick’s Nov. 6, 1996, death, in which he was shot in what police believe was a botched drug deal in Fair Haven.
Just days after the murder, Sullivan allegedly told North Haven police he was unaware of drug activity in Fair Haven – despite extensive police knowledge of drug dealing there, the warrant states.
As early as March 1997, New Haven Officer Keith Wortz told Sullivan he had information on individuals who allegedly were involved in the homicide. Sullivan then told him to stop helping North Haven police and said Pastore did not want the murder probe coming back to New Haven, according to Wortz.
In March 1998, Sullivan told a North Haven officer that he might have information for him on the Cusick case. When pressed again in October 1998 about the information, Sullivan told North Haven Capt. Thomas Habib that the individual he thought could help was in jail at the time of the homicide.
According to the warrant, however, state investigators determined that the suspect named in the February 1998 statements taken by New Haven police was not imprisoned at the time of the Cusick murder.
"Sullivan aided and protected the person or persons responsible for the death of Philip Cusick by using his position and authority in the New Haven Police Department to delay the proper investigation of such homicide," concludes the warrant, requested by Assistant Chief State’s Attorney Christopher Morano and signed by a judge Wednesday.
Though Espinosa did not find sufficient evidence that Sullivan’s subordinates "shared criminal intent or unlawful purpose with him," the warrant suggests that other police officials might not be in the clear. It points to inconsistencies in Kendall’s grand jury testimony; for instance, in which he said he signed the witness’s audiotape out of the property room.
No records could be found to prove Kendall had signed them out legally, according to the warrant.
The warrant also specifically refers to a March 21 meeting in which Kendall, Sullivan’s second-in-command, allegedly told State’s Attorney Michael Dearington he thought the witness’s statement had been turned over to North Haven police.
He subsequently admitted, under oath, that he had lied, the warrant states.
In a statement Friday, Bailey said his office was forwarding evidence from the grand jury investigation to Dearington’s office "to assist … in any further investigation."
Dearington on Friday said he had "no comment" as to whether his office would request warrants for other officers. Hypothetically speaking, Dearington said, "the prosecutor can choose to accept the grand juror’s recommendation … or elect to apply for the arrest of people that the grand juror doesn’t recommend."
He would not discuss this investigation specifically.
Police Chief Melvin Wearing, who has denied telling Sullivan to halt the investigation, refused comment Friday. Mayor John DeStefano Jr., meanwhile, struck tones of reconciliation.
"We are now near the end of this issue," he said in a statement. "The more pressing issue at hand is for the North Haven and New Haven police departments to solve the killing of Phillip Cusick."
But Cusick’s brother, Matthew, did not share his sense of finality.
"If (Sullivan’s arrest) is what it takes to have justice be done for the murder of my brother, then so be it," he said Friday. "My brother’s murderer still walks the streets. Some people know who that was, but nothing’s been done for two years."
The city’s pension board Friday also approved Kendall’s retirement, effective Dec. 24. He will receive a $49,365 annual pension after 21 years of service, said John Cicarelli, deputy comptroller/risk manager for the city.
Cicarelli said Sullivan and Kendall had filed for pensions in March, and that both had cashed in on four years’ worth of accrued sick time.
Many officers file retirement papers early in the year to take advantage of the sick-time offer. If they don’t want to retire, they can withdraw the papers before the end of the year.
As for the ethics charges against Sullivan, City Corporation Counsel Thayer Baldwin said: "There isn’t any basis (to pursue the ethics charges), because they aren’t police anymore. You can’t discipline someone unless he’s an employee."
The city was set to also file administrative charges against Kendall, but he had filed his retirement papers by the time the police commission met this week to consider the issue.
©New Haven Register 2000
zwire.com |
